Page 13 of Hungry Like a Wolf
“I saw darkness.” Ravn looked around at the rapt faces. For a moment, his attention landed on Carmel, his piercing, glacier-blue eyes drilling into her before moving back to Haakon. “What I’d failed to see was that my twin brother and I had become as opposite as day and night, as different as summer and winter. He was the light and I was the darkness.”
Haakon frowned and leaned forward, forearms on his thighs, hands dangling.
“And I didn’t like that. The gods didn’t like it,” Ravn continued. “And I paid for it, not just with the loss of Father, but Siggy and our unborn child were also taken.”
Haakon frowned. “I am sorry to hear that.”
Ravn’s jaw tensed. It was clearly a loss that pained him.
For a moment, Carmel almost felt sorry for him. Then she remembered her own losses and how much she hated the Vikings and their murderous, heathen customs.
“I had lost my way, lost control of my destiny.” Ravn popped a chunk of ham into his mouth and chewed. “And I wanted to reset, rebalance. I wanted to find my family.”
Orm let out a sudden huge roar of laughter and clutched his belly.
Carmel shrank back into the shadows, standing slightly behind Anna.
“You wanted to find your family? How? You didn’t even know where we were,” Orm said.
“I am here, aren’t I?” Ravn didn’t seem remotely perturbed by Orm’s wild laughter.
“But how?” Kenna asked, holding out her arm for the owl to hop onto. She fed it a morsel of ham.
“It is the will of the gods,” Ravn said. “It is the true path of my destiny.” He stood and held out his mug. “And I am returned to it after veering off course for some time. Toast with me.”
Anna nudged Carmel. “Fill his horn for him.”
Quickly, Carmel lifted the earthenware jug and shuffled toward the towering Viking king. His fur cape was matted and his hair salt-sprinkled. He had ink below his right eye in the shape of a small star.
He frowned at her. “Why do you walk that way?”
Her jaw tensed and her heart thudded. The last thing she wanted was to be the center of attention in a room full of foes.
“Woman,” he snapped. “Why do you walk like that?”
She raised the muddy hem of her gown to show him the chain and ankle cuffs.
“You are a thrall?” He studied her closely, seeming to notice the cross hanging from her right ear.
“She ismythrall!” Orm leaped up and bounced toward her before circling with flamboyant hand gestures as though she were quite the prize. “I captured her in battle. She is a princess. My princess thrall. How lucky am I?”
“A princess?” Ravn said, peering even closer at her. “You are a princess?”
For a moment, she held his gaze, but then she quickly filled his mug and took a step backward. Being a slave was mortifying. Being a crazed Norseman’s slave was more degrading and shameful than she could ever have believed possible.
She’d never felt further from being a princess in her life.
Her shoulder bumped into Anna’s and she tucked behind her, using her new friend as a shield. It was all she had.
“Do not look at her like that,” Orm said, holding up his pinkie finger. “As if you want to put your little cock inside her. She is my slave to do with what I wish.”
Ravn frowned. “My cock is none of your business and it is not little.”
“Butsheis.” Orm pointed. “She is mine.”
Oh, God. That was what he was planning? Fucking her? Forcing himself upon her? The thought was hideous and her stomach churned. It would have been better to have died in battle than live like this.
Ravn’s eyes narrowed and he turned back to Haakon and sipped his ale. “I saw the pyre. We have stopped in three coves on our journey here. My plan was to search until I found my kin. But the pyre led me straight to you.”
